


The Doctor's Companion

by OnYonderHill



Category: Doctor Who
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen, Sometimes the Doctor Needs a Headslap
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-28
Updated: 2014-04-28
Packaged: 2018-01-21 02:35:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,845
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1534460
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OnYonderHill/pseuds/OnYonderHill
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Prophecy or not, the Doctor dying after dealing with the Time Lords was not a fixed point. For such a brilliant man the Doctor could be a real idiot. He needed someone to smack him over the head every once in a while.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Doctor's Companion

**Author's Note:**

> So far, three episodes in on series 5, I’m not that keen on Eleven yet. (I'm sure I'll get there in a bit ~.^). It was heartbreaking to watch Ten regenerate, he had really been falling apart at the end of series 4, so this is my AU for the end of The End of Time. 
> 
> As a warning, I haven’t written fanfiction in about six or seven years so am very out of practice. This may suck. This may suck a lot. You have been warned. Please feel free to give constructive criticism!

The Ood were singing a song of ending while the last of the Time Lords lay dying in the snow. It was New Year’s Eve, a day for endings. Tomorrow would be a new day in a new year. A new face. A new personality. A new life for a new man.

The Doctor hated it.

He had so much more to give in this life, so many more places to go, and worlds to explore. So many new people to meet, and save. He had so many new adventures he wanted to go on. 

Sure, he had lost it with Adelaide Brooke a few months before. The madness of his heritage had gotten the better of him. But he regretted that, and the woman had forced him back onto the straight and narrow. It just proved that he did not do well on his own.

He didn’t want to die alone.

The Doctor’s arms gave out and he face planted into the snow-covered street. It took a few minutes before he found the strength to start dragging himself along the ground again.

A pair of heavy, black, snow-covered boots blocked his line of sight. Who?

“For someone who’s a genius you can be a real dumbass you know?” A familiar male voice stated. Before the Doctor knew it a pair of strong hands were scooping him up into a warm blue-clad chest and the sweet-musky scent of familiar 51st Century pheromones filled his nose.

“Jack.” He murmured in shocked relief.

“The one and only.” Jack agreed, balancing the Time Lord while he unlocked the TARDIS before shuffling them both inside. He laid the Doctor on the bench seat next to the console and kneeled next to his head.

“Jack, I don’t want to die.” The Doctor admitted in a small voice, brown eyes wide and earnest in his ashen face.

“I know, Doc.” Jack soothed, running a hand through soft brown hair. “I came here to help.” He gently cupped the Time Lord’s face, stroking over his cheeks, before lowering his head and kissing the Time Lord chastely on the mouth. Now was not the time to take advantage of their positions.

The Doctor’s body gave a massive jerk as silver life energy flowed through his body, healing the damage that the radiation had wrought. Gold regenerative energy likewise siphoned into Jack, to join the rest of the vortex energy that flowed through the human’s body. Minutes passed in the blink of an eye. Jack pulled away with a gasp and collapsed onto his butt, one hand propping himself up, and the other held over his pounding heart.

The Doctor sat up and began patting himself down, feeling over his chest, his face, his hair, frantically. All there. All the same as he remembered. No extra appendages where there were none before.

“I’m still me!” He gaped.

“Yeah, you’re still you.” Jack agreed through his pants for breath. He finally regulated his breathing and sat up, crossing his legs like a school-child. The two sat in silence for a few minutes, getting their bearings.

Then Jack leaned forward and smacked the Doctor over the head. Hard.

“Ow! What the hell was that for?!” The Doctor yelped, clutching the injured part defensively and glaring at the former head of Torchwood 3.

“For being a fucking dumbass, that’s what!” Jack snapped back, eyes narrowed to pale-blue slits. “You’re always complaining that no one listens to you, but you never reciprocate!”

“I listen!” The Doctor defended himself petulantly, still rubbing over the smarting injury.

“Oh? So what did Sarah Jane Smith tell you after we brought the Earth back?” Jack asked, with a raised brow as he got to his feet. The better to loom over the idiot in the pin-striped suit. "And yes, I did hear what she said from where I was."

“Um…” The Doctor twiddled his fingers sheepishly.

Jack gave a decisive nod at that. “Idiot!” He smacked the Time Lord over the head again, causing him to pull his arms over his head defensively. “She told you that for a lonely man you had the biggest family on Earth!”

“Oh, well, that-”

Jack cut him off. “Okay, let’s go through a little thought experiment since this is not getting through your thick skull.” He glared at the Doctor until the man slumped petulantly into the chair like a chastised little boy. He gave a small mutter in protest about the state of his skull thanks to Jack's violent tendencies. Jack gave an imperious nod, ignoring the muttering, and leaned against the console, arms crossed. “Now, I want you to imagine something for a moment. Say there was an emergency. An alien species is going to destroy the Earth, and has taken Martha’s family hostage. What is the first thing she would do?”

“Make a plan with UNIT?” Jack’s eyes narrowed and the Doctor’s sulk deepened.

“Call you! She would call you!” Jack tapped his foot against the grating. “Okay, now say the bastards at the Time Agency have come to Cardiff and are planning to demolish the city and all its inhabitants to rebuild the Agency over the Rift. What would I do?”

“Go in guns blazing, and make a bloody mess.” The Doctor instantly replied. Jack thought about it.

“Okay, yeah.” He agreed. “But what else would I do?” He got silence for his troubles. “I would call you for help.” He sighed. “You’re not getting it are you?” He moved until he was kneeling in front of the Time Lord so they were eye to eye.

“You are not alone!” He told the Time Lord earnestly, taking his hands in his. The Doctor blinked at hearing the same words that the Face of Boe had told him what felt like half a lifetime ago. “You have a family! You have a phone that can call anywhere in the universe, and a group of friends and companions who would run to your side in a heartbeat if you called us for help. You could have called any one of us!”

The Doctor blinked at that.

“Hell! Even if it wasn't an earth-threatening crisis! If you just wanted to have a cup of tea with someone who knows you, you could have called any one of us, and we would have been happy to put the kettle on!” Jack continued his rant. He had a nice bit of steam going, and was falling into his stride. “We have guest rooms, Doctor! We have libraries of interesting books, and movies you could watch with us. I have a whole hub filled with interesting bits of machinery you could play with if you need a break from the running!”

As Jack continued his tirade the Doctor’s face slowly broke out into a warm smile, until he was helpless to do anything but grin affectionately at this impossible immortal human before him. He gently squeezed the hands still holding his and Jack trailed off.

“Thank you.” The Doctor told one of his most faithful companions. “No really, thank you Jack. For everything.”

“Yeah, well, you’re an idiot.” Jack teased with that warm golden grin that made him Jack. He sobered. “You know, there’s something else you’re always forgetting.” The Doctor blinked.

“I’m immortal, Doc. I’m going to live as long as time.” The Doctor raised a brow. “I’m going to outlive even you.” Jack met his gaze seriously. “So no matter what, you’re never going to be alone. No matter how many of our friends pass on, I’m still going to be here. I’ll always be somewhere in the universe if you need me.”

The Doctor got his smile back and leaned forward to kiss the immortal on the forehead.

“Speaking of tea, I could use a cup.” The Doctor stated, rising to his feet with a clap of his hands. As he was herding Jack towards the kitchen he suddenly froze. “Wait a minute…”

“What?” Jack asked with a frown.

“This is London in 2005!” The Doctor whirled to his companion with a glare. “You didn't hitch a ride on the TARDIS with me and Martha for a few years yet! How did you get to this time!” Jack sighed and continued to the kitchen, eeling around the skinny Time Lord who was blocking the hallway.

“Wait, did you fix your vortex manipulator again?!” The Doctor stalked after his companion in a snit.

“Doc, you’re the one who fixed it for me.” Jack finally interrupted the man after making the tea and setting it out, all the while being scolded. That shut the man up. “I got a visit from one of your next regenerations in a bar in the Chloon cluster in 2012. You told me about what happened with the Master, and the Time Lords. Then you fixed my vortex manipulator, and left. You had left a series of coordinates leading me here. I figured it was so that we could have a drink, spend some time decompressing. Then I could scold you a bit for never asking for help, and send you off with a cup of tea.”

“You met one of my regenerations? Was I finally ginger? No! Don’t answer that!” The Doctor flailed. Jack rolled his eyes and topped up his friend’s cup, scootching over the sugar bowl.

“Doc, you call me an impossible thing. But somehow you are both the smartest, and dumbest person in the universe.” Jack finally sighed. He could feel a psychic nudge from the TARDIS in agreement. “Drink your tea. If you’re going to disable my vortex manipulator again, you had better at least be a gentleman and drop me back off in Chloon.” The Doctor looked vaguely guilty before his eyes lit up and a familiar clever smirk tilted the corners of his mouth.

“Hey Jack,” the immortal made a humming noise to show he was paying attention as he sipped his tea. “What would you say to a little side trip to Ki, you know, on our way to Chloon.”

“Ki.” Jack stated. “You mean the planet entirely covered with trees the size of the Himalayas? Where each tree is carved into a different city?”

“They make the most potent rum in the Hak Galaxy.” The Doctor wheedled. Jack gave a laugh and stuck his hand out for the Doctor to shake.

“You got yourself a deal, Doc.”

The two washed their mugs and headed back to the console room. The Doctor grinned at his companion, hearts beating with the knowledge that here was a companion that would never leave him forever. A companion who would always return, or would be there for him to return to. The two ran around the console, setting the TARDIS on her way.

It was a new year, and he had lived to see it with the same eyes. Maybe in the future, when he was ready, he would finally be ginger.

“Into time,” Jack grinned at him.

“And space!” The two crowed as the TARDIS rocked and trembled and took the two into the stars.


End file.
